So Crazy It Just Might Work

Contributor Lloyd Garver Has A Suggestion For Democratic President Hopeful Dennis Kucinich

(CBS)  In one of the 2007 presidential debates - and I mean one of the 2,007 debates that they've held so far, not debates held in the year 2007 - Tim Russert asked Democratic hopeful Dennis Kucinich if, as Shirley MacLaine reported in a recent book, he has ever seen a UFO. The candidate answered, "I did."

Almost immediately, Kucinich was mocked by Republicans and others, and had his intelligence and mental health called into question. There was a similar response when three of the Republican candidates at another debate claimed they did not believe in evolution. My point is that everybody has beliefs that somebody else considers crazy.

So at least for the duration of this column, let's not look at these things as the opinions of "nuts" and "wackos." Let's look at them as "minority opinions." And remember, just because only a minority believes in something doesn't mean that they're wrong. So let's cut these minority believers some slack, whether they believe in ghosts, that the earth is flat, or that President Bush's Iraq policy is working out great.

As far as the UFO issue is concerned, before Republicans laugh too loudly, they should remember that Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs twice. And despite his aides' advice, like Kucinich, Reagan was not afraid to admit that he had seen them.

All of this got me thinking. Hardly anyone believes that Kucinich has a chance of getting the Democratic nomination, let alone winning the presidency. But I think there is a way he could win. He should make more of his "close encounter," and try to get all the people who say they believe in UFOs to vote for him.

About 34 percent of Americans believe in UFOs. If Kucinich could just get all of the registered voters of that group to vote for him, he'd have a great start.

But why stop there? If I were advising Kucinich, I'd tell him to go after all the people who have been called "crazy," "irrational," or just plain "silly" because of their beliefs.

After all, another 34 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 13 percent believe that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, while about 7.5 percent believe that an article of clothing will bring them good luck. Six percent believe the moon landing was faked, 20 percent think the Sun revolves around the Earth, 27 percent believe they have been reincarnated and were another person in a previous life, and 19 percent believe there's at least a good chance that Elvis is still alive.

So people with "minority opinions" make up a demographic that is generally ignored by most candidates. And it's not a small demographic. I'm going to add up all the percentages of people with these beliefs. OK, it comes to a total of 160.5 percent of the American people. Wait, that can't be right. Even though I'm used to election results not making arithmetical sense, I know that 160.5 percent is a bit high. I guess the reason for this large number is that some people with minority beliefs belong to more than one category. I'll bet a lot of people who have lucky shirts also believe Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, and some who believe in ghosts probably also believe that they have been reincarnated, etc.

However, if 160.5 percent of the vote is out of the question (assuming you're someone who believes in math), let's face it: the number of Americans with "minority beliefs" (or "crazies," as many people called them until now) is a pretty high number. If you don't fall into one of these categories yourself, don't at least a few of the people that you know have some of these minority beliefs? Or maybe they believe in things I didn't include here.

This might be the only way for Kucinich to win: round up the voters who are mocked for their beliefs. Since I'm not someone who's among those who claim to be able to see into the future, I can't guarantee that this would make him president. But if all of the "minority believers" were organized as Kucinich's campaign workers, it certainly would be fun to go to one of his rallies.

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Lloyd Garver has written for many television shows, ranging from "Sesame Street" to "Family Ties" to "Frasier." He has also read many books, some of which he believed.

[taxguydave]

Actually, Eggy, Kucinich has taken most of his campaign money from PAC''s. How do you think he keeps getting re-elected to a congressional district?

He just panders to different special interests than most of the other candidates.

[eggy1620]

The biggest strike against Dennis is the fact that he has not accepted money from any PAC%u2019s, industries, celebrity donors, special interest groups, etc. He%u2019s not beholden to anyone, so no one is going to give him the time of day. Pretty sad that you have to sell you soul to gain a foothold in the national political spotlight.

[adventurepa]

UFO''''s are real and have been real for a long time.
The government has covered up what they found because of the money and technology involved.

Ask yourself how much money is involved if only one alien device was ever discovered?

The reengineering development and reselling of that technology would be worth trillions of dollars.
Now imagine what they found in Roswell.

I believe in Dennis Kuciniches.

[Syndicate]

By definition UFOs exist. I live in California so we just blame anything on Area 51. The closest thing I''ve ever seen to a military cover up was the crash of a stealth fighter in kern county before the plane was made public.

[davidsereda]

Believe in expert witness testimony from astronauts and Air Force pilots. Who is qualified as a reporter to argue these men?

Major Robert White

On July 17, 1962 Major Robert White reported a UFO during his
fifty-eight-mile high flight of an X-15. Major White reported:

"I have no idea what it could be. It was grayish in color
and about thrity to forty feet away."

Then according to a Time Magazine article, Major White exclaimed over the
radio:

"There ARE things out there! There absolutely is!"

NASA Pilot Joseph A. Walker

On May 11, 1962 NASA pilot Joseph Walker said that one of his tasks was to
detect UFOs during his X-15 flights. He had filmed five or six UFOs during
his record breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April, 1962. It was the
second time he had filmed UFOs in flight. During a lecture at the Second
National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle,
Washigton he said:

"I don''t feel like speculating about them. All I know is
what appeared on the film which was developed after the
flight." - Joseph Walker

To date none of those films has been released to the public for viewing.


Commander Eugene Cernan

Eugene Cernan was commander of Apollo 17. In a Los Angeles Times article
in 1973 he said, about UFOs:

"...I''ve been asked (about UFOs) and I''ve said publicly I
thought they (UFOs) were somebody else, some other
civilization."

[davidsereda]

From CNN.COM:
Astronaut Gordon Cooper logged more than 7,000 hours flying time in jets and commercial aircraft. He retired from the Air Force and NASA in 1970 with the rank of colonel.

After leaving NASA, Cooper served on the boards of directors as a technical consultant to a number of companies in the aerospace, electronics and energy fields. He also was the vice president for research and development for Walter E. Disney Enterprises Inc., from 1974-1980.

In his post-NASA career, Cooper became known as an outspoken believer in UFOs and charged that the government was covering up its knowledge of extraterrestrial activity.

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth," he told a United Nations panel in 1985.

"I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion."

He added, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."

Article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/gordon.cooper/index.html?iref=newssearch

[davidsereda]

Astronaut Gordon Cooper testified to seeing UFOS 2 times, once at Edwards AFB in CA his crew filmed one. In Time magazine, Major Bob White testified that when he was test fkying the X-15 going Mach 6 he was pursued by a UFO in 1962. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell is a UFO proponent. Many Air Foce Personnel have testified also, yet so many of you think you are more qualified than these experts to say they are crazy? Who are you?

[mellie1957]

Around 1970 a UFO took our Dog & we haven''t seen him since.

UFO"S
They are real, I have no doubt about it. I have a real picture of one, would you like to see it?

[aaabee-2009]

Posted by tburzio at 03:28 PM : Nov 07, 2007

Yes, tburzio. Conservatives 100% angelic, liberals 100% bad. Got ya.

[cbs_oliver]

Good point.

How about Dennis goes for that minority of people who actually really do believe in God (as opposed to those who just believe in religion)?

He''s got a good start.

Jesus would probably approve of his positions on most issues.

Talk about your oddball points of view!

[tburzio]

A "belief" is when facts allow two different conclusions. "Delusion" is when you make up facts to come to a conclusion. Being a Republican is when a liberal tries to make you believe a conclusion without facts. Being a Democrat is when the facts support only one conclusion, but you believe another and try and talk a Republican into believing it.

[aaabee-2009]

UFO''s?

There is no room for a man''s honest opinion? We can see angels and ghosts and talk to the spirits of our dead loved ones and see the face of Jesus in hot cakes, but no one but a certified nut can see an Unidentifed Flying Object? Does one need to be certified before seeing a UFO, or is classified as certified after seeing it.

I paid no attention to Kucinich UNTIL he fessed up to seeing a UFO, which is not the same as fessing up to seeing a flying saucer. A UFO is as titled, unidentified.

At least he isn''t seeing terrorists behind every Bush.

dennis4president.com
Lets get Kuci for ''08

[aaabee-2009]

Now who is shoving what *** down whose throat?
Posted by guysdigdirt at 12:27 PM : Nov 07, 2007

hey, dirt. If you didn''t stand there with your mouth wide open, trying to shout down all other points of view, you wouldn''t have to swallow so much *** back.

Just how much gets into that tightly closed brain of yours though. You seem like you have all the answers wrapped up and tied with a bow. No room for any maturation or alteration of your world view since....kindergarden?

Have a great Bush day.

[taxguydave]

Kucinich says the things that he thinks people want to hear, but he has no actual plan to accomplish any of it. If we start pulling out of Iraq tomorrow, no way is it going to be completed in 3 months (it took us 2 years to withdraw from Vietnam). Medicare for everybody is a great idea, but it''s going to take years to sign up 200 million+ people, and he has no interim plan.

He talks a good game, but there''s no substance.

Also, he seems to have shifted his views dramatically in the year before he first decided to run (2003) for President. He used to be a reliable anti-choice, anti-free speech vote.

[davidsereda]

I don''t know why we keep ignorning the facts about UFOs. recently a Lockheed Martin Senior Scientist, Boyd Bushman, testified about UFOs and Roswell in www.fromheretoandromeda.com and all the main stream media gets too scared to run the story. The also lie about the percentages of Americans who believe in UFOs. See the real poll numbers:

http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/PublicOpinionPolls.htm

[rematenaj]

I personally don''t care that Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO - I really like the other things he says. And I know a lot of other people do too. It''s too bad the only way to get elected in this country is to have a bundle of money.....

[guysdigdirt]

Seeing a UFO is just crazy but believing that the universe was created by an invisible man who lives in the sky in seven days is perfectly logical. No wonder this country is going down the toilet.

Posted by roger3815
-------------------------------------

Right on the money. An invisible man creating the universe... just a stupid as transfering images through space as invisible matter and energy waves to come into a home across the world into a box, letting you see what is happening thousands of miles away. Stupid like a body that heals itself, and with all the technology we have as the bright and intellectual people we have become we cannot come close to duplicating even the simplist parts of the biomechanics.

You say this invisible man thing is shoved down your throat, hypocrite. Would you have us believe a micro-organism evolved to a fish, to a land walking fish, to a monkey to a man? Yeah right. But then two of these miracles would have had to happen at the same time or the species would not have continued. Now who is shoving what *** down whose throat?

[adventurepa]

UFO''s are real and have been real for a long time.
The government has covered up what they found because of the money and technology involved.

Ask yourself how much money is involved if only one alien device was ever discovered?

The reengineering development and reselling of that technology would be worth trillions of dollars.
Now imagine what they found in Roswell.

This is not crazy, unless you believe the naysayers.
Just like any fabel, there is some truth.